Joking text mistakenly brings cops to bank

Mom misinterpreted message from daughter

A teenager's joking text message about two bank robbers who escaped from a South Loop jail escalated into a 911 call prompting authorities to swarm a bank in Orland Park, officials said.

Orland Park police Cmdr. John Keating said a woman called 911 at 12:14 p.m. Tuesday to report a robbery at Marquette Bank, 7560 W. 159th St., after she received a text message from her daughter saying the bank was being robbed.

"That turned out not to be the case," Keating said.

Jeff MacDonald, marketing director for Marquette, said a 19-year-old customer told her mother via text that she was going to the bank. The mother told her daughter to be careful because of the ongoing search for the escaped bank robbers sighted that morning in nearby Tinley Park.

Jokingly, the daughter texted her mother to say, "They're here, they have guns," MacDonald said, but her mother didn't know it was a joke and called 911.

Keating said police are investigating whether there was criminal intent.